


Second Chance

by Khylara



Category: Public Enemies (2009)
Genre: Character Death Fix, Fix-It, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-19
Updated: 2014-06-19
Packaged: 2018-02-05 09:47:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1814113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khylara/pseuds/Khylara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On an eerie Chicago night, one soul comes back from the dead and another finally moves on</p>
            </blockquote>





	Second Chance

**Author's Note:**

> For the 2009 Halloween challenge at the Guns & Fedoras LJ community

 

It was after midnight before Special Agent Melvin Purvis managed to pull himself away from the crowds of people surrounding Chicago’s Biograph Theatre. Once he was alone he slowly made his way down the darkened, deserted streets to his tiny apartment, not acknowledging the people streaming past him to get to the scene. He was numb, the events of the evening having taken a heavy toll on his heart, his mind, his very soul.  

 

Over. It was finally over.

 

_He can’t be dead,_  he thought over and over, the words echoing not only in his mind but in his heart. But he couldn’t deny what he has seen with his own eyes – gunshots fired, piercing flesh and bone. The dark shine of blood on concrete. The dead look in those normally warm dark eyes.

 

He wished so much that things had gone differently, that some how, some way, they had managed to bring John Dillinger in alive.  _Because it shouldn’t have ended for him like that,_  he thought.  _Being shot down in the street, like a rabid animal, with no dignity even in death._  Melvin shook his head; no matter what he had done, John Dillinger hadn’t deserved that kind of death.

 

He still remembered those laughing eyes, the slight smirk in his smile. There had been bars between them at Crown Point, but they hadn’t been enough to contain the spark of undeniable attraction between the two men. That smile in particular. It had gone right through him at the time and it was the one thing he couldn’t forget now.

 

_Like I can’t forget another pair of dark eyes,_ _another smile,_ he thought as another just as painful ache filled his heart.  _Carter…I miss you so much. You should be here with me, too. You’d understand what’s going on in my head, I think._ Carter had known about his attraction to the infamous bank robber; the two of them had spent many nights tangled in each other’s arms discussing it, with the younger man being surprisingly okay with his lover’s confused feelings.

 

_You don’t choose who you fall in love with,_  he mused, smiling a little at the memory. Carter had been quite insistent about that point, emphasizing it quite a few times in their months together.

 

Climbing up the four flights of stairs to his apartment, he was about to unlock the door when he noticed it was ajar. Pulling out his gun, he carefully nudged the door open and stepped inside, immediately noting the figure standing by the room’s one window, gazing up at the full moon. “Show me your hands,” he said, pointing the gun at him as he kicked his front door closed with his foot.

 

A soft chuckle answered him. “I’ll show you anything you want me to, Melvin,” the man said as he raised his hands and turned around, stepping into the light.

 

Melvin stared, feeling his knees go weak as he lowered the pistol. “Johnny?” he breathed, not daring to believe what he was seeing. It had to be an illusion, a trick of the mind brought on by too much stress and grief. It couldn’t be him…

 

For an answer, John Dillinger came up to Purvis and cupped his face in his hands, drawing him into a lingering kiss that sent the agent’s heart soaring into parts unknown. Letting out a muffled groan, he dropped the pistol onto a nearby table and wrapped his arms around Johnny’s frame, returning the kiss for all he was worth.

 

Moments later, Johnny drew away and grinned. “I have been wanting to do that since Crown Point jail,” he said as he reached up to take off Melvin’s fedora. He tossed it onto the sofa. “Damn, but it’s good to see you.”

 

Melvin brushed his fingers over Johnny’s face, his eyes wide. “You’re alive,” he breathed, his heart pounding hard in his chest. “My God…you’re really alive.”

 

“Right as rain, too.” The cheerful look on Johnny’s face changed to concern when he noticed how pale and shaky Melvin was. “You, though…you looked like you just walked through Hell.” His voice softened. “That bad?”

 

“Worse.” Melvin’s hands dug into the fabric of Johnny’s black pinstriped suit. Black. Not khaki and white, which was what he had been wearing at the Biograph. The straw boater hat was gone as well. On the coffee table by the sofa was a black fedora. Even the mustache he had grown in an attempt to disguise his face was gone. “I thought…God, it looked like you were dead.” He buried his face in the other man’s shoulder, breathing in the scent of Dillinger’s cologne. “They shot you…and I couldn’t stop them. I couldn’t warn you. I couldn’t do anything.” A sob caught in his throat. “Not a damned thing.”

 

“I know,” was the whispered reply. “It’s all right, Melvin. I told you, I’m right as rain. See?” Taking one of Purvis’ hands, Johnny put it over his chest for a moment. “Still beating. No extra holes. I’m fine.”

 

A confused look appeared on Melvin’s face even as he felt the steady thump of Johnny’s heartbeat under his fingers. “But how?” he asked, looking up into Dillinger’s dark eyes. “I saw them shoot you. I even saw you lying there. How did you get away?”

 

Johnny cocked his head, suddenly thoughtful. “Don’t know,” he finally said with a shrug. “One minute I’m walking with Polly and Ana through the street and the next I’m standing in front of your front door dressed in my best suit.” An apologetic look crossed his face. “Sorry about the door, by the way. I had to break the lock in order to get in.” He waved a hand toward the window and in the Biograph’s general direction. “Figured I’d better get out of sight what with all the commotion.”

 

“Hell with the door,” Melvin said with a dismissive shake of his head. “The last thing I care about is the damned door.” He fingered Johnny’s lapels; he knew he should question the other man’s apparent miraculous resurrection more closely, but for the first time in his life, he didn’t want to know why. Johnny was alive. That was enough.

 

All of a sudden Johnny reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a pistol, pointing it at something in back of him. “Who the hell are you?” he barked, the look on his face turning hard and cold.

 

Melvin turned and suddenly tears came to his eyes. The image standing by the window was bathed in moonlight and practically transparent, but to Purvis he was all too familiar. “Carter,” he breathed.

 

Johnny stared at him. “You know him?”

 

Melvin nodded, tears pricking at his eyes. “Carter Baum. He is…he was…my second-in-command. Nelson killed him at Little Bohemia.”

 

Slowly lowering the gun, Johnny put it back into his pocket, unfazed by the fact that there was now a ghost in Melvin’s living room. “Hell, I’m sorry. Knew I never should’ve gotten involved with that crazy fuck.” Seeing the look on the other man’s face - the hesitation, the longing, the pain – he suddenly understood. “You and him…you were lovers, weren’t you?”

 

Melvin nodded again as a tear slowly slid down one cheek. “For over a year. We worked together in Washington before Hoover assigned me to Chicago. He came with me…stood by me when no one else would.” He swallowed hard against the lump in his throat. He still missed Carter so much, but seeing him like this hurt even more than he thought it would. “I had hoped…I prayed that after what happened…that he was at peace.”

 

“Got something he has to do before he gets it, I’m guessing,” Johnny said thoughtfully. He tilted his head as he turned his attention to the ghost. “That right, Carter Baum? You have something unfinished?” He could guess just what. “Never got to say your good-byes to him, did you?”

 

There was a nod, followed by the barest of whispers.  _Take care of him for me._

 

“That why I got brought back?” Dillinger asked with a raised eyebrow. “This was all your doing? For your Mel?” He didn’t wait for an answer before he nodded. “Don’t you worry, then. I’ll watch over your Melvin for you.” Reaching over he took Melvin’s hand in his “He’ll be safe with me. I promise.”

 

He got a smile as a reply.  _Thank you. He said you were a good man._

 

Johnny shrugged. “Well…I wouldn’t go  **that**  far.” Squeezing Melvin’s fingers, he let go and gently pushed him toward the window. “Go on,” he urged softly. “If you love him like you say you do, don’t leave him there. He needs to say good-bye. And so do you.”

 

Melvin took a step, holding out his hand hesitantly. “Carter…I’m so sorry.”

 

Instead of taking his hand, Carter stepped into his arms.  _You have nothing to be sorry for._  He pressed his forehead against the other man’s.  _This wasn’t your fault._

 

Melvin closed his eyes, breathing in the mixed scent of Carter’s hair pomade and cologne, the spicy sweet citrus smells making his head spin. “I miss you, darlin’,” he whispered. “The past three months…they’ve been hard without you.”

 

_I know. And I miss you, too, Mel. So much._  Carter drew away enough to look at him.  _But it’s time._

 

“No…please…” Melvin breathed, drawing his lover into a lingering kiss, not wanting to let him go even though he knew he had to. “Please, Carter…I love you. Don’t go…”

 

_I have to. I only stayed this long because I wanted to make sure you were safe. Now that I know you are…and you won’t be alone…I have to go._ Carter caressed Melvin’s face, smiling as he brushed away the other man’s tears.  _Be happy. Live the life I can’t…get as far away from all this as possible and just be happy._ Giving him one final kiss, Carter stepped out of his arms and back toward the window into a shaft of moonlight.  _I love you, Mel. I will always love you. And I’ll be waiting._

 

Just then, the moonlight disappeared behind a cloud. When it returned a moment later, Carter was gone.

 

Melvin stood there for the longest moment, simply staring at the space where Carter Baum had been. He barely felt Johnny’s arms steal around his waist. “You all right there?” he asked softly, putting his chin on the other man’s shoulder. “You know he had to go.”

 

“I know,” was the soft reply. He swiped at his eyes, brushing away the remains of his tears. “He’s at peace now. That’s all that matters.” He turned his head toward Johnny. “So…what happens now?”

 

“Whatever you want to,” Johnny replied, turning him enough so that they faced each other. “Although I would prefer it to be as far away from Chicago as possible, what with me being dead and everything.” Catching Melvin’s faint smile, he continued on. “Let’s get away, the two of us. Right now. We can go somewhere warm, where the whisky flows and the girls are pretty and we can make love right in the sand by the water. Someplace safe and far away, where neither of us have to hide anything for the rest of our lives.” He paused, searching for an answer in Melvin’s eyes. “What do you say?”

 

Melvin considered the invitation for all of a moment. He was done with Chicago, done with the Bureau. It was time for a second chance.  _Carter would have wanted this,_  he thought with a smile.  _Be happy,_  the younger agent had said. He had every intention to be.

 

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his badge and threw it onto the coffee table without a second thought. “I say give me ten minutes,” he said as he loosened his collar and pulled off his tie. It landed next to his badge. “Let me pack a bag and find my passport. Then you can take me wherever you want to.” 

 

“What about the Bureau and good old JE?” Johnny pressed, turning serious for a moment. “He’ll come looking for you if you just up and vanish.”

 

“Let him,” was the harsh reply. “I’m through with his manipulations, his petty little games. I gave everything I had to that man because I thought he had some honor. Little Bohemia showed me that he didn’t, and tonight proved that even more.” Melvin’s voice was quiet, but firm. “Hoover can go to whatever Hell he chooses, in the fastest way possible. I’m done with him.” He suddenly smiled. “You got your second chance thanks to Carter. Now I’m taking mine.”

 

Johnny pulled him into another lingering kiss as a shaft of moonlight illuminated them both. “And we’ll make the most of it. That I can promise you.”


End file.
